Khagol _112 _October 2017

| KHAG L | No. 112 - OCTOBER 2017 | 04 The salient features (selected) that emerged from this discussion were: (a) In keeping with Yash Pal's vision, the IUCs serve a very important role providing centralised facilities, which are not easily available to individual universities, but which the university community can visit anduse. (b) All subjects are not covered in these IUCs, and it was suggested to have other such centres for other subjects. (c) Many were in favour of de-centralising such central facilities. In particular, a need was felt for branching out into regional centres, with not-so-large facilities as local training centres. (d) Considering the heavy teaching load on most teachers, ideas are needed on how to support a large number of research projects for under-graduate andpost-graduate students. (e) There was emphasis on the colleges and universities in rural India, where good science has been done but where the human resources created have less opportunities. (f) There was a feeling that the funds for research under projects to college/university teachers were shrinking, and this should be taken into consideration. A summary and report of the discussion would be forwarded to the UGCand theMHRD. Somak Raychaudhury concluded themeetingwith a vote of thanks to the HRD Minister; the Secretary of the Department of Higher Education; the Chairman, UGC, for initiating the idea for this unique event; the IUC Directors; all the participants, who attended at short notice; and the teams at IUCAA, IUAC and UGC-DAE CSR who worked behind the scenes tomake the event a success.